Yesterday we went to Valleyview to pick up my new sheep. Hubby and I built a box on our friend's flat bed trailer (We've got to get one of those!) on Monday and then yesterday
we hit the wide open road and headed out to Valleyview to pick up the sheep. We left at 8 a.m. and 15 hours later drove into the yard with sheep in tow. We had a great trip. It stared out in cloud cover for pretty much the whole way but that was good because driving with the sun in your eyes can be seriously nasty. We stopped for snacks in Pouce Coupe on the way there and it started to rain shortly after. That was something I wasn't too happy about but Hubby had it under control. The Daughters and Tootsie the wonder chicken herder were with us. They kept themselves occupied by listening to Daughter #1's iPod in the back seat. I must say they were excellent co-travelers and did not fight too much and generally stayed polite which is amazing considering that they were cooped up together for long hours. Anyway, I digress, the trip gave us all an opportunity to see parts of the country that we have not seen for a while. It was nice to hit the highway because I realized very quickly that the colours of fall are everywhere not just my backyard and while any intelligent person would deduce this fact, it still is a bit of a shock when you see it. The turn of the seasons is irrefutable my friends.
Grand Prairie was our stopping place for lunch and it was a stop in torrents of rain. That's why when we finally got to JM's place in Valleyview an hour later it was a bit of a shock to see that she was suffering the kind of drought that we experienced here in the Peace a few year ago. There were grasshoppers everywhere and by the droves. They had polished off the grass and every green thing except for the quack grass for miles. There was one patch of quack grass in her garden that was lovely and rich and green and soft. Nothing and I mean nothing eats quack grass except maybe ducks! They had not had serious amounts of rain for quite a while. The sunshine actually hurt the eyes there. The grass was white it was so dead. She showed us all around the paddocks and barns and at one point she showed us one of her old sheep who wasn't too lively. She was just lying there and the grasshoppers were all over her and they were even eating her wool because they had nothing green left to eat. JM was horrified but I had seen it before because three years ago when we were hit with a draught we had a grasshopper plague like I have never seen before. It was truly the most horrible thing I have ever seen. When God gave grasshopper plagues to the world He knew how to punish, that is for sure.
We were at JM's for about an hour and a half where we had a very interesting tour of her place and then we left, loaded with sheep who have now been named as follows...
Pure bred Merino.... Queenie
Canadian Arcott/Merino.... Sally
Cotswold/Merino (black).... Lulu
BFL/Merino ram..... Ipwitch
The trip
home was exhausting most of which was driven after dark. Hauling sheep in a trailer meant
that we went slower than normal so they wouldn't get jostled too much. We stopped in GP for supper which had cleared away from earlier in the day and was now sunny. After we left though it meant driving into the setting sun which is never relaxing. Hubby had worn himself out by the time we got back to Pouce Coupe and so I took over driving again. It was dark and so I felt skirting Dawson Creek was a good idea to avoid traffic with a trailer in tow during the dark at night. The traffic between Dawson Creek and Chetwynd was dreadful with vehicles coming at just the right intervals to make you constantly have to flick on and off your high beams. I was glad to head north and get out of that traffic. Problem is though that I was so bleary eyed after driving that long in the dark that when we got to a police road block at Moberly Lake I decided to give Mike, who had been snoozing since I started driving an hour and a half before, the opportunity to drive us home. By this time it was really dark with no little amount of light on the horizon at all. Just before we got to the downward hill that took us into our own little home town, I noticed a strange glow in the sky, which at first I thought was the glow of our town lights. Then I rethought that since it was in the wrong place and thought perhaps it was the lights of a new drilling rig. No that wasn't right either as it had a greenish glow to it and that's when Hubby piped up and suggested that it was the glow of Northern Lights. The Daughters by this time were asleep from pure exhaustion and didn't see a thing.It was only after we left the lights of our home town behind that I noticed how beautiful were the stars. It was glorious as the heavens were at their best. I can only imagine how the shepherds of old who slept out under the stars would have felt. We close ourselves off from the glorious skies when we go into our homes at night. But some night, if you are adventurous and have the interest, open your door and take a walk out under the skies... try to find a place that doesn't have any street lights because you will be astounded by the number of stars that are in the great dome above us. Who knows you may even catch a glimps of some of those mysterious northern lights... I think I should add that one to my "Glad To Be Alive" list... It is good to be alive when you walk out under the great dome of our world in the ever darkening night, where there are no man made lights to detract from the glorious bounty of the skies, and you see spread out before you all of the universe in cool clear pinpoints of light, gentle light, and realize how incredibly small you are. Inky blackness surrounds you and on the horizon, low in the sky are the evidence of the sun's activity with light dancing in an ever beautiful array of green streaks and you realize how lucky you are to be the reality of a one in one billionth exponential possibility. Then around you are the sleepy baaas of sheepy mom's calling their lambs to them.The still small interests of wee things intermingle with the vastly large and beyond understanding. Yes it is good to be alive......
I slept in this morning, a good thing too since I will be heading in to FSJ at 3:30 a.m. to take Fadder for tests at the hospital that requires
us to be there no later than 5 a.m. But driving in the dark again will mean another opportunity hopefully to look at the night skies and ponder the inconsequence of humanity.
As for the sheep?...
they have settled in and 
are making friends with the others. Pecking order is being established and the little ram is still nervous of this great long necked weird looking white woolly thing (Mishka) that keeps trying to sniff him and check him out! Imagine if you had this look at you....
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